Dr Dudley Loftus (1619 – June 1695) was an

Anglo-Irish Anglo-Irish people () denotes an ethnic, social and religious grouping who are mostly the descendants and successors of the English Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. They mostly belong to the Anglican Church of Ireland, which was the State rel ...

jurist and noted orientalist. Loftus was born the second son of Sir Adam Loftus and his wife Jane Vaughan, daughter of Walter Vaughan, into a family of 17 siblings on his great-grandfather’s estate of

Rathfarnham Castle Rathfarnham Castle () is a 16th-century fortified house in Rathfarnham, South Dublin, Ireland. Originally a semi-fortified and battlemented structure it underwent extensive alterations in the 18th century. It is in State care, has been restore ...

Dublin Dublin is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. Situated on Dublin Bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, and is bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, pa ...

. He graduated from

Trinity College, Dublin Trinity College Dublin (), officially titled The College of the Holy and Undivided Trinity of Queen Elizabeth near Dublin, and legally incorporated as Trinity College, the University of Dublin (TCD), is the sole constituent college of the Univ ...

when 18, then entered

Oxford University The University of Oxford is a collegiate research university in Oxford, England. There is evidence of teaching as early as 1096, making it the oldest university in the English-speaking world and the second-oldest continuously operating u ...

in 1639 on the advice of Bishop Usher, taking his Master of Arts degree in 1641. Rathfarnham Castle

In his lifetime he was acclaimed as a linguist, and his reputation as an orientalist was unrivalled thanks to his Latin translations from Ethiopic,

Armenian Armenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Armenia, a country in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia * Armenians, the national people of Armenia, or people of Armenian descent ** Armenian diaspora, Armenian communities around the ...

, Syriac,

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, and Persian texts. He served four times as a Member of the

Irish House of Commons The Irish House of Commons was the lower house of the Parliament of Ireland that existed from 1297 until the end of 1800. The upper house was the Irish House of Lords, House of Lords. The membership of the House of Commons was directly elected, ...

, representing

Naas Naas ( ; or ) is the county town of County Kildare in Republic of Ireland, Ireland. In 2022, it had a population of 26,180, making it the largest town in County Kildare (ahead of Newbridge, County Kildare, Newbridge) and the List of urban ar ...

between 1642 and 1648, the combined counties of Kildare and Wicklow in the Third

Protectorate Parliament This is a list of parliaments of England from the reign of King Henry III, when the '' Curia Regis'' developed into a body known as Parliament, until the creation of the Parliament of Great Britain in 1707. For later parliaments, see the List ...

of 1659 at

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, Bannow between 1661 and 1666 and Fethard between 1692 and 1693. He was also Vicar General of Ireland, Judge of the

Prerogative Court A prerogative court is a court through which the discretionary powers, privileges, and legal immunities reserved to the sovereign were exercised. In England in the 17th century, a clash developed between these courts, representing the crown's a ...

of Ireland, and Senior

Master in Chancery The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid a slow pace of change and possible harshness (or "inequity") of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of eq ...

. He inherited the family seat of Rathfarnham Castle in 1659. Despite his many accomplishments, Archbishop

Narcissus Marsh Narcissus Marsh (20 December 1638 – 2 November 1713) was an English clergyman who was successively Church of Ireland Bishop of Ferns and Leighlin, Archbishop of Cashel, Archbishop of Dublin and Archbishop of Armagh. He also served as the 1 ...

wrote of him that "he never knew so much Learning in the Keeping of a Fool". Even so, the archbishop collected the majority of Loftus' manuscripts and housed them at a public library, Marsh's Library), next to St. Patrick's Cathedral, where they can be seen to this day.

Jonathan Swift Jonathan Swift (30 November 1667 – 19 October 1745) was an Anglo-Irish writer, essayist, satirist, and Anglican cleric. In 1713, he became the Dean (Christianity), dean of St Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin, and was given the sobriquet "Dean Swi ...

for his part described Loftus thus: "Let him be hailed amongst the junior fellows, with his short feet and

rhinoceros A rhinoceros ( ; ; ; : rhinoceros or rhinoceroses), commonly abbreviated to rhino, is a member of any of the five extant taxon, extant species (or numerous extinct species) of odd-toed ungulates (perissodactyls) in the family (biology), famil ...

nose …..Because of his looks and eloquence we name him Ulysses; for Ulysses was not handsome but he had the gift of tongues. No Tartar is more fair, no Athenian better hung, / Sol varnish’d o’er his face, and Mercury his tongue. For his height let us salute him as Ajax, for his scrawniness as Tithonus, for his shaking head as the palsied Priam, for his swiftness as Achilles and finally (for his giant shanks), as the Colossus." Loftus is interred in the family vault in

St. Patrick's Cathedral, Dublin Saint Patrick's Cathedral () in Dublin, Ireland is the national cathedral of the Church of Ireland. Christ Church Cathedral, also a Church of Ireland cathedral in Dublin, is designated as the local cathedral of the Diocese of Dublin and Glen ...

. He was married to Frances Nagle, daughter of Patrick Nagle and Mary Bolton, and granddaughter of Sir Thomas Nagle, 19th Baron of Navan, and his wife Marian Fagan; and of Sir Edward Bolton, Chief Baron of the Irish Exchequer, and Isabella Ayloffe. They had seven children, of whom only one daughter Letitia survived infancy.

References

* Richard Ryan, ''Biographia Hibernica: A Biographical Dictionary of the Worthies of Ireland from the Earliest Period to the Present Time'', London : John Warren, 1821. Vol. II, pages 379-380.
Loftus Family Registry

External links

Dudley Loftus
in Alfred Webb, ed., ''A Compendiun of Irish Biography'', 1878. * ''The Annals of Dudley Loftus'' by Newport B. White in Analecta Hibernica, No. 10 (Jul., 1941), pp. 171, 223, 225-238. , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Loftus, Dudley 1619 births 1695 deaths 17th-century Anglo-Irish people Irish MPs 1692–1693 Irish orientalists

Dudley Dudley ( , ) is a market town in the West Midlands, England, southeast of Wolverhampton and northwest of Birmingham. Historically part of Worcestershire, the town is the administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley. In the ...

People from Rathfarnham Members of the Parliament of Ireland (pre-1801) for County Kildare constituencies Irish ecclesiastical judges Irish MPs 1639–1649 Irish MPs 1661–1666 English MPs 1659

See also

References

External links